BOISE, Idaho - The Boise State men’s tennis team has catapulted 26 spots up the national rankings to No. 15 following the Broncos second-consecutive Blue Gray National Tennis Classic championship last weekend in Montgomery, Ala. Boise State defeated three opponents who were ranked higher than the Broncos on their way to the title with wins over then-ranked No. 36 Alabama, No. 21 Clemson and No. 37 VCU.

“Every morning I wake up with the primary resolve to remind my team of their greatness, and that our goal is to get into the top 16 in the nation and then hold onto it with dear life,” said head coach Greg Patton. “Today our dream is becoming a reality, we made an astronomical leap for the ages from number 41 to number 15. Now we have to guard it with our lives so that we can host an NCAA site in May for Boise and make history.”

To Boise State’s credit is has played an extremely tough schedule which includes five straight weeks on the road where the Broncos have won eight consecutive matches to enter this week at 9-2 overall and 1-0 in Mountain West Conference play. They have faced seven nationally ranked opponents to date and have gone 5-2 against them.

They have recorded victories over current No. 21 Clemson (W 4-3), No. 29 VCU (W 4-2), No. 37 Alabama (W 4-0), No. 51 Utah (W 5-2) and No. 65 Drake (W 4-1), all away from Boise. The Broncos lone losses are to current No. 8 Baylor (L 4-0) at Waco, Texas, in the second week and at home against No. 23 Northwestern (L 5-2) on the opening weekend.

Boise State still has seven more teams in the current national rankings on their schedule which include: at No. 43 Oregon (March 1), No. 44 Virginia Tech (March 15) in Boise, No. 47 Minnesota (March 9) in Boise, No. 52 Stanford (April 1) on the road, No. 59 Marquette (March 22) in Boise, as well as conference rivals No. 63 Air Force (April 19) and No. 64 San Diego State (April 12), both in Boise. MW opponent No. 71 Nevada is not on the regular season schedule as they are in the West Division, but the two could meet in the conference tournament in late April at Fresno, Calif.

The Broncos’ Andy Bettles, who plays on court one, moved up from No. 90 in singles to No. 83. The senior from Somerset, England, is currently 15-8 overall this year.